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Monthly Archives: October 2011

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“Look, do you want a two-hour lecture on quantum physics?” a man named Miguel asks a man named Peter. What sane person would say yes to a question like that?

Spider-Man video games seem like a natural fit for the open world genre, with New York City and its towering skyline practically serving as a jungle gym for the swinging superhero. Some of his more successful video game endeavors have captured that sense of freedom. Spider-Man: Edge of Time eschews this structure for a more linear time-traveling narrative with two Spider-Men, which is down from the four featured in last year’s Spider-Man: Shattered Dimensions, also from Beenox.

The metaphor of outer space as the old western frontier is not a new concept – “space westerns” have been represented numerous times in many forms of media, and it’s not hard to see why. The emptiness of space makes for a fitting analog to the open prairies, and the rugged loner archetypes of the old west feel as natural in the cockpit of a spaceship as on the saddle of a horse. From its opening sequence, Rochard sets the tone immediately with a country blues tune, and it takes the metaphor one degree further with its main character, John Rochard (voiced by His Dukeness, Jon St. John), a good ol’ boy space miner filling the role of the lone cowboy. He’s down on his luck – what western hero isn’t? – and his company desperately needs a big find. Of course, he gets his break, but not without a whole mess of trouble.

The premise for Space Channel 5: Part 2 sounds like something out of a fevered nightmare following an extended binge on dance music videos and The Jetsons. You manipulate Ulala, star reporter of Space Channel 5, as she attempts to save the space president and the entire galaxy from an evil mastermind who wants to mind-control everyone into dancing against their will. Along the way you’ll pick up assistance from various space citizens bedecked in retro space gear, funky aliens, and Space Michael. Michael Jackson, that is.

It is somewhat amazing to me that Street Fighter III: 3rd Strike is over 10 years old. An even longer time ago, as a child, my brother and I would spend hours together and with friends pummeling each other’s faces in games such as some iteration of Street Fighter II or Street Fighter Alpha. That feels like an eternity ago. Sometime between then and now, the gulf of skill dividing my brother and I widened to a grand canyon. I, of course, was left behind on the side of slightly informed amateurs and button-mashers, while he advanced to the realm of watching tournament replays and modifying arcade sticks (yes, more than one). Unsurprisingly, it became less fun for me to play against a seeming master of the arts, and I eventually lost interest in fighting games in general a short while after the Dreamcast and its delights of Soul Calibur, Dead or Alive 2 and Marvel vs. Capcom. The only game I could beat him (and anyone else) at with ease and consistency was Power Stone 2.